The present invention relates generally to decorative garlands and methods of making same. More particularly, the invention is directed to garlands constructed from a cut or slit film web which is twisted together with a supporting wire or filament.
Decorative garlands formed from twisted cut film have been made for many years in a variety of different styles and designs. One such garland type and a method for making it are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,226. The method starts by providing a flexible web of film and cutting it to provide a predetermined pattern of transverse slits. The slit film web is then folded and twisted together with one or more elongated supporting wires, wherein the slit web is fed into the twisting mechanism much faster than the supporting wires. The resulting garland has a plurality of bunched-together loops or spikes or needles, depending upon the pattern of the slitting in the web.
It is also known to take two of such garland strands made in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,226, the garland strands preferably being of different color, and twisting them together in a direction opposite from the twist direction used in forming each garland strand, to produce a combined garland with a helically-striped barber pole appearance. In such combined garlands the individual strands retain substantially their same external appearance.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated another type of prior art garland. The method of forming it is very similar to that of the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,226, the difference being in the pattern of slitting of the starting web 11. More specifically, referring to FIG. 3, the web 11 has two laterally spaced arrays 12 and 12a of longitudinally spaced lateral slits 13, 13a forming rows of slats 14, 14a. The web also has an unslit central region 15 separating the two arrays of slats and unslit marginal regions 16 and 17. When the web is twisted in a predetermined direction with its associated supporting wire 18 (see FIG. 2), one array of slats 14 is formed into an array of loops 20, while the other array of slats 14a is formed into an array of loops 21, the loop arrays respectively defining adjacent helical tubes 22 and 23. In order to provide adequate support and rigidity, plural plies 11, 11a of the slit web may be stacked to provide a multi-ply strip 25 before twisting with the associated support wires (see FIG. 6). In this case, the loops 20, 20a, 21, 21a and tubes 22, 22a, 23, 23a formed by the adjacent webs 11, 11a are respectively formed coaxially within one another (see FIG. 2).
Applicant has discovered that plural ones of these garland strands can be combined in a reverse twist fashion to produce a combined garland such that, in the combined garland, each of the constituent strands has an appearance quite different from its appearance before it was combined, resulting in a unique garland pattern.